True-crime tale 'I Touched All Your Stuff' takes a strange turn

Chris Kirk, an American prisoner in Brazil, is shown in the documentary "I Touched All Your Stuff." (Cinema Slate / YouTube)

The true-crime documentary "I Touched All Your Stuff," the tale of an American imprisoned in Brazil, proves stranger than fiction.

During a visit to prison, filmmakers Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani hear Chris Kirk recount his Hitchcockian chance-encounter with a femme fatale in Colombia. As the siren allegedly got sketchier about her whereabouts, acquaintances and finances, Kirk became more obsessed with her complex web of deceit.

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At the outset, Bühler and Mariani leave the impression that they might be attempting to exonerate Kirk, just as Errol Morris helped to free Randall Adams with the 1988 documentary "The Thin Blue Line." (The reason for Kirk's imprisonment isn't initially divulged.)

But then their effort morphs into a thriller more like "Catfish." "I Touched All Your Stuff" emanates the same air of voyeurism and invasion of privacy. The filmmakers snoop around Kirk's computer desktop to find image, video, text and audio files to illustrate the story.

It's too bad that Bühler and Mariani take Kirk's tall tale at face value instead of doing their own investigative work and tracking down other characters for interviews.

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"I Touched All Your Stuff"

MPAA rating: None

Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes.

Playing: Arena Cinema, Hollywood.

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